Leeds Teaching Hospitals

Advanced Clinical Pharmacist (XR08)

The closing date is 19 June 2025

Job summary

As a result of a maternity leave, a unique opportunity has arisen for a dedicated and motivated pharmacist to join the Cancer Services Pharmacy Team at Leeds Teaching Hospitals. This is a 6 month fixed term cover for our CAR-T cell Advanced Clinical Pharmacist role.

CAR-T is a cutting edge therapy offered to patients with various malignancies in both Leeds and the wider Yorkshire area. Our pharmacist is a vital part of the multi-disciplinary team looking after this specialist group of patients at all stages of their treatment.

Haematology or cancer related experience is not an essential criteria for this role. We are looking for someone who is able to manage a dynamic and changing workload to ensure a safe, efficient, effective and positive service for our CAR-T patients.

Full training would be provided to the new post holder as well as support to attain an initial partial competency in the validation of haematology related systemic anti-cancer therapy (SACT) utilising our comprehensive and structured SACT training programme.

Main duties of the job

- Provide an advanced clinical pharmacy service to our haematology inpatient wards including CAR-T and BMT patients

- Attend weekly CAR-T multi-disciplinary team meetings

- Work closely with CAR-T cell manufacturers and NHSBT to ensure cellular products are available for patients when and where they need them

- Undertake patient counselling at all stages of the CAR-T pathway to ensure maximum benefit from medicines supplied and advise on medication restrictions at various stages of the pathway

- Liaise with drug & therapeutics, medicines safety, informatics and finance teams to facilitate the implementation of new CAR-T products

- Undertake required audits and reviews to ensure the service is operating within the required specification and adhering to national and international standards

- Provide training and supervision to colleagues in the cancer team and across pharmacy

- Develop and maintain existing links with CAR-T colleagues around the country to ensure best practice

About us

The haematology pharmacy team work together on a daily basis to ensure that some of our most complex and challenging treatments within Leeds Teaching Hospitals are delivered safely, efficiently and in a patient centred manner. Our team is made up of some highly experienced pharmacists who have strong working relationships with the wider multi-disciplinary team.

Any new starter to the team receives a thorough induction drawing on the years of experience possessed by our pharmacists and technicians within various specialist fields.

We have a strong ethos of workforce development. We strive to ensure that all members of the team are able to access development opportunities not solely limited to clinical work as well as the facilitation of regular team based clinical education sessions.

Weekly huddles ensure that all team members are supported and workloads are appropriately managed whilst giving the opportunity to share best practice

Leeds Teaching Hospitals is committed to our process of redeploying 'at risk' members of our existing workforce to new roles. As such, all our job adverts are subject to this policy and we reserve the right to close, delay or remove adverts while this process is completed. If you do experience a delay in the shortlisting stage of the recruitment cycle, please bear with us while this process is completed, and contact the named contact if you have any questions.

Date posted

29 May 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 8a

Salary

£53,755 to £60,504 a year

Contract

Fixed term

Duration

6 months

Working pattern

Full-time

Reference number

C9298-MMP-394

Job locations

St. James's University Hospital

Beckett Street

Leeds

LS9 7TF

Job description

Job responsibilities

Clinical

Lead the highly specialised clinical pharmacy service to patients and the multidisciplinary team within a given clinical speciality.

Supports the Trust's Prescribing Standards and challenges practice where prescribers have not adhered to the Medicines Code.

Demonstrate the ability to provide safe, clinically effective and cost-effective use of medicines in accordance with Trust policy, standard operating procedures and medicine legislation. This will include individual prescription review to optimise therapy, advising on dosage and side effects and on safe administration of medicines. The post holder is expected to determine how the outcomes are best achieve in specific circumstances.

Pharmacists who are registered as prescribers will, with the agreement of the clinical director of the speciality, prescribe within their level of competence, to support patient care.

Plan, manage, monitor and review individual patient care plans.

Participate in consultant ward rounds and multi-disciplinary team meetings.

Manage difficult and ambiguous problems, often when information is limited.

Undertake risk management, including investigating clinical incidents in the clinical area and ensuring compliance with medicine legislation.

The post holder will be expected to identify, where necessary, areas that require service changes and develop a strategy to carry out the change through consultation with senior colleagues within and outside the pharmacy.

Manage the introduction of new drugs, including unlicensed drugs, into the clinical speciality.

Manage the clinical pharmacist input into clinical trials.

Develop and update policies for the safe, effective and economic use of medicines through discussion with medical and nursing staff.

Communication with Primary Care about medicines policies or guidelines specific for their area of practice.

Management

Monitor and interpret expenditure on medicines within own clinical speciality. Provide the Directorate with regular reports to assist in the management of the drug budget

a. Attend the monthly Clinical Speciality Management meetings to advise on medicine use and financial implications

- Horizon scan for new drugs and advise the clinical speciality meetings on the financial implications

b. Co-ordinate Medicines Use Savings Projects

c. Review prescribing data from out-patient clinics

Contribution to financial initiatives

Write or respond to business cases for service development to secure additional funding.

Responsible for day to day supervision / management of specialist clinical pharmacists in clinical speciality (some staff)

Research and Education

Occasionally participates in research and development within clinical speciality

Undertakes own research/audit within clinical speciality

Supervise, teach, and assess junior pharmacy staff completing training modules within the clinical area. This input varies, mostly based on the experience of the post holder, and will typically include:

- Acting as a trainer to pre-registration and junior pharmacists in their area of specialist practice

- Being a named tutor for a pre-registration and/or diploma pharmacist

- Lecturing on clinical issues relevant to the specialty, as part of the pre-registration training program, the clinical diploma, and any other in service training.

The post holder is also expected to participate in the training of other clinical professionals within their specialist area as requested.

Develop the role of a specialist pharmacist through national links.